Sri Lankan HC resigns

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK, Amari Wijewardene, has resigned from her post, well informed government sources. President Maithripala Sirisena had accepted her resignation, sources added.

Speculation is rife in diplomatic circles that Wijewardene’s resignation is linked to the recall of military attache Brig. Priyanka Fernando under pressure from some British parliamentarians following an incident where he made a throats slitting gesture to a group British LTTE sympathisers who protested opposite the Sri Lankan High Commission in London on Sri Lankan Independence Day.

The Foreign Ministry has denied that Wijewardene resigned. It has said: "The reports being circulated in the media attributed to the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK, Mrs. Amari Wijewardene, has resigned, are incorrect. High Commissioner Wijewardene will conclude her contract on her own volition by 31 March 2018.